Top Chef All Stars LA Season 17 episode 11 preview: California dreaming

Which Top Chef All Stars jet off to Italy?

Top Chef All Stars LA chefs cook their final meals in the City of Angels before jetting off to Italy. While one chef rejoins from Last Chance Kitchen, this week’s challenges are the make or break time for the chefs. Will someone find that the Top Chef competition pressure is just too much?

According to Bravo, this week’s Top Chef All Stars LA episode, “Michael’s Santa Monica” features the following:

"Tom makes his final decision from Last Chance Kitchen on who should return to the competition. Then the chefs take off in a Quickfire with Padma and Jonathan Waxman making a two-course Business-Class dish for an airline. For their final challenge in Los Angeles before jetting off to Italy for the finale, the chefs go to Michael’s Santa Monica, where they meet Chef and Restaurateur Michael McCarty, the legendary pioneer of California Cuisine. With only five chefs moving onto the finals, the chefs will have to reimagine one of Michael’s iconic dishes from across the years and serve it to a table of celebrated alumni of Michael’s kitchen, including Roy Yamaguchi, Jonathan Waxman, Sang Yoon, Mark Peel and Brooke Williamson."

Since no one deserves a spoiler, the Last Chance Kitchen returning chef will wait for the episode to air. Needless to say, that an eliminated chef will return. Who that will be remains to be seen?

For the Quickfire Challenge, airline food is notoriously difficult. While a dish might be perfectly seasoned in a kitchen, it is not the same when served on a plane. The chefs need to take that idea into consideration.

Additionally, those dishes have to be reheated. Just because a chef loves a dish or wants to serve a dish, doesn’t mean that it is the most appropriate dish.

Lastly, having Jonathan Waxman judge airplane food is daunting. Even though Waxman understands the competition pressure, he is not going to mix words. It will be interesting to see which dishes get his seal of approval.

In the Elimination Challenge, the task is extremely difficult. Some dishes should never be made over. They are iconic for a very good reason. To ask these chefs to remake one of these iconic dishes is asking for a comparison that doesn’t need to be made.

Given the challenge, it seems likely that the pressure will be high in the kitchen. Not only is the plane waiting to take the chefs to Italy, the chefs around the table are a tough crowd. In this final challenge in LA, no one cares about good intentions and culinary dreams. It is time to make a bold, convincing statement on the plate.

Ready to see who gets on a jet plane to Italy? Here’s how to watch this week’s Top Chef All Stars LA episode.

Date: Thursday, May 28, 2020

Start Time: 10 p.m. ET

Episode: “Michael’s Santa Monica”

TV Channel: Bravo

Live Stream: Watch live on Fubo TV. Sign up now for a free seven-day trial. You can also watch on Bravo’s website or app.

Top Chef All Stars LA will air on Bravo on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.